Cllr Lucinda Yeadon pictured at an event to pass on the 'volunteering torch' to the environmental theme from the children and young people's theme in May 2011
The two year focus on volunteering in Leeds, headed by Leeds City Council and Voluntary Action Leeds (VAL), has now come to an end, but the positive results achieved means that its legacy will live on.
2010 was designated as the Leeds Year of Volunteering, and the city took advantage of the European Year of Volunteering 2011 (EYOV) to continue the exciting work that was taking place.
The campaign was developed in partnership between the voluntary, public and private sectors. Its aim was to promote the benefits and opportunities that volunteering offers, and also to increase the number of volunteers in Leeds, which were low in comparison to other major cities.
Evaluation of the two year campaign has confirmed that the number of people volunteering in the city rose by 25% in 2010 and 20% in 2011. In 2011 there was also a six-fold increase in the number of volunteering placements being offered by organisations.
The 2010 campaign got underway with the opening of the new Volunteer Centre Leeds at St Paul’s Street on a five day a week basis. The centre’s role is to match volunteers to volunteer placements, and help organisations to develop volunteering schemes for their employees. The Leeds centre is now one of the top five performing volunteer centres in the country, and funding has been secured to enable it to continue to operate for at least the next 12 months.
The EYOV widened the scope of the first year to include Leeds’ partner cities in Europe, with representatives from volunteer organisations from Brno, Brasov, Lille, Siegen and Dortmund spending time in Leeds to share information and ideas with similar volunteering organisations. The conference to launch the European Year of Volunteering in the UK was held at the Royal Armouries, sponsored by Europe Direct, in December 2010.
Over the last two years, 16 volunteering themes have been featured, and 150 events have taken place covering all aspects of voluntary work, attended by around 8000 people.
In 2010, the new Compact for Leeds, which has a significant focus on volunteering, was signed up to by organisations in the voluntary sector, the local authority and other partners. The new Leeds Volunteering Kitemark and Toolkit were launched to help improve the quality of volunteering in the city, and the outstanding achievements of local volunteers were celebrated through the Leeds 2010 Year of Volunteering awards held at Leeds Civic Hall.
The Leeds Involvement Strategy was developed in 2011, which aims to increase the level of volunteering, philanthropy and participation in the city. A guide has also been produced for people who want to get involved in volunteering and active citizenship. The council also reviewed how it uses volunteers, and pledged to support its own employees to encourage them to get involved in volunteering.
Councillor Lucinda Yeadon, executive board member with responsibility for adult health and social care said:
”I would like to personally thank all our volunteers for dedicating their time and effort to supporting people and communities across the city.
“Volunteering is vital to Leeds. We have over 125,000 volunteers helping to connect friends, neighbours and communities, and also bringing significant economic benefits to the city. The annual value of volunteering in Leeds is estimated to be worth over £7 million per year.
“Our volunteering campaigns – 2010 Leeds Year of Volunteering and Leeds European Year of Volunteering 2011 – were a celebration of the tremendous voluntary effort that people make every day to help others, raise funds for charities, participate in decision making and help to create the best city for all our residents to live in.
“The campaigns also helped to further develop partnership working between the voluntary, public and private sectors in the city.
“It is crucial that this recent focus leaves an ongoing legacy for volunteering, and to support this a city-wide strategy has been produced. The aim of the Leeds Involvement Strategy is to help Leeds realise its ambition to be the best city in the UK for volunteering, giving and participation.”
Richard Jackson, chief executive of Voluntary Action Leeds said:
“One of the main successes of this campaign has been the strengthening of partnerships and better working relationships between the council and the third sector.
“There’s a real buzz around volunteering in the sector, and people want to continue to see the kind of results that have been achieved. The Compact for Leeds was key in demonstrating the city’s commitment to the public and third sector working together, and now the Leeds Involvement Strategy will help sustain this progress and continue to promote and grow volunteering in the city.”
In addition to the above, the council’s adult social care department has established a commissioning service for small, local voluntary organisations. This will work alongside Voluntary Action Leeds’ commissioning support project. This offers support in business development, competitiveness and entrepreneurial skills to help organisations to bid for contracts. The service is proving to be successful and is already strongly valued by the third sector in Leeds, creating a level playing field for all organisations seeking to provide not-for-profit social commissioning services in the city.
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For media enquiries, please contact;
Claire Macklam, Leeds City Council press office (0113) 395 1578
Email: claire.macklam@leeds.gov.uk
